Jumia, Kenya’s leading online store reported a more than 3M customer login to secure deals last week following the launch of its annual Black Friday shopping season.
The 30-day event started off well, with Jumia reporting that Monday November 13th was their largest ever day of sales. Over the course of the event, they expect this year’s Black Friday to reach 6x bigger than 2016, reflecting the growing traction of online shopping in Kenya.
One of the key features of this year’s event is the significantly larger range of deals on offer. The retail challenger features 500,000 different products on sale, up from 30,000 last year. This highlights one of the advantages of online retail globally – which is that customers benefit from a larger range of products online than offline. To put this in perspective, offline retailers in Kenya typically have between 20,000 to 60,000 products in their stores.
Jumia announced that for the first time, in any of its African markets, it has begun to accept Black Friday orders by Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) through dialing *483*483# from customers. Managing Director Sam Chappatte explained “USSD is used by millions of Kenyans on a daily basis. If we can make the process of ordering online for the first time a bit easier for customers by opening up new low cost channels, we will do them all. Our aim is to go mainstream & bring lower prices, convenience, choice & quality products to the masses”
Black Friday’s first order was placed within 6 seconds of the campaign going live at midnight, and was made by a student from Jomo Kenyatta University in Juja.
Other notable facts shared by Jumia include;
- hundreds of customers have been delivered same day in Nairobi
- the most popular product so far is Unilever’s Blueband
- the highest priced product is an apartment at Kilimani retailing at 10% off for KES 19,600,000, followed by 30% discounts on brand new cars from Simba Corp.
“It’s been an exciting start to the Black Friday Festival – with customers reacting positively to the offers our partners have put forward. We are seeing increasing interest in smaller towns around Kenya, and expect that Nairobi will start to represent a smaller share of our business in the future as a result. Next week we shift focus to Black Friday XXX – Friday 24th, where customers will get more Treasure Hunts, more Flash Sales, and 1000 more deals.” Sam Chappatte, the Jumia Kenya Managing Director said in a statement.
The e-commerce giant has partnered with both local and international brands including Mastercard, Infinix, Nice & Lovely, Pampers, Chandaria Industries, Unilever, Ramtons, Samsung, LG, Oppo, Huawei, Simba Corp and Procter and Gamble.
On Friday 24th, Jumia launches the largest day of the event, Black Friday XXX. The launch will be a fusion of entertainment and e-commerce over the course of a Concert featuring East Africa’s top boy-band Sauti Sol. This continues the trend set by Alibaba who recently launched their ‘Single’s Day’ with a concert featuring Pharrell and Nicole Kidman. Sauti Sol will perform on Thursday 23rd from 7PM at the Alchemist Bar, Westlands, as the count down for Black Friday begins.
The 2017 edition of Jumia Black Friday sales began on November 13 and will run for a month to December 13, with shoppers being treated to sales and festivities with different deals being released every day.
